head to head · open source
Midday vs Polar
Midday has 15,014 GitHub stars, 1,876 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Polar has 10,270 stars, 787 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Midday leads on adoption by 46% (15,014 vs 10,270 stars). Midday is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Polar is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Midday has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Polar 8%. Polar was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (nextjs), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Midday | Polar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 10K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-06-13 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 787 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Midday if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Polar if
- You want the Polar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Polar fits your workflow better
About Midday
Midday is an open source business finance and operations tool for freelancers, contractors, consultants, and solo entrepreneurs. It is built in the TypeScript and Next.js ecosystem, with Supabase and TailwindCSS in its stack, and it aims to gather invoicing, time tracking, file reconciliation, storage, financial overview, and an assistant into one system.
read the full Midday overview →
About Polar
Polar is an open source billing platform and payment infrastructure project for digital products, SaaS applications, and AI workloads. It is written in Python, licensed under Apache 2.0, and built around FastAPI, Next.js, React, and Turborepo. The project positions itself as a financial layer for software that needs to charge for tokens, agents, compute, subscriptions, and usage based models.
read the full Polar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Midday or Polar more popular?
Midday has 15,014 GitHub stars and Polar has 10,270. Midday has the larger community by that measure.
Are Midday and Polar free?
Both are open source. Midday is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Polar under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Midday and Polar?
Midday is written in TypeScript and Polar in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Midday or Polar?
Choose Midday if you want the larger community (15,014 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Polar if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.